Robert Moses is a civil rights hero. The chronicler of the civil rights era during the King years, Taylor Branch, says that Moses was a self-effacing, observant and sensitive leader. He told one newspaper, “"To this day he is a startling paradox. I think his influence is almost on par with Martin Luther King, and yet he's almost totally unknown

He is not unknown to generations of students who have benefited from Moses’ belief in the power of math to open doors to opportunity. His Macarthur Genius award testifies to the belief people have in Robert Moses’ approach to civil rights in a time when education holds the key to challenging oppression and prejudice. He continues to work through his national non-profit, “The Algebra Project,” using mathematics as an organizing tool to pursue quality public school education for every child in America.

Robert Moses was in Seattle as a guest of Washington Stem and Project Pilgrimage. He spoke about his own work within the context of American history and his current path to a small group of Project Pilgrimage alums in late November 2017.

Project Pilgrimage’s Sharayah Lane, along with freelance journalist Steve Scher, led the discussion.

The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation brings people together to talk. It may sound simple, but finding the right words to bridge the deep, old divide of bigotry and prejudice in the U.S. is hard work. Community Member Meg Lippert and Utah State University student Lauren Mata marvel at the simple tools that people could use to find common ground.

The story of Emmett Till's brutal murder resonates through the years. The civil rights pilgrims, students from UW, Bellevue College and Utah State University as well as adult community members from around the NW, walked through the Emmett Till Museum, established in tiny Glendora Mississippi through the efforts of the town's mayor, Johnny B. Thomas. Back on the bus, Community member Julie Lyons and University of Washington Student Kira Baker were still processing the moment and how Till's murder affected America.

We've got Mississippi on our minds. We traveled to Money, Mississippi, where we stood outside the decaying building that once housed a grocery infamous in American history.

In August, 1955, Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy from Chicago visiting relatives in Money, a small town in the Mississippi Delta. He may have spoken to 21 year old Carole Bryant, the white, married proprietor of the store. If so, that simple act was his death sentence.

Three nights later, Roy Bryant, Carole's husband, and his half brother J.W. Milam, abducted Till. They beat him, mutilated him, shot him and threw his body in the Tallahatchie river. His bloated corpse was found three days later.

Mamie Till-Mobley, Till's mother, held a public funeral in Chicago. His body was displayed in an open casket. The event exposed American racism to the world.

In September 1955, Bryant and Milam were acquitted of Till's kidnapping and murder. Protected from being tried again, they admitted to Look Magazine that they had killed Till. Their justification was that they thought young man had whistled at Carole Bryant.

The crime became a symbol of the failure of the justice system and the murderous terror of white supremacy.

Across the country today, the murder of Emmett Till still resonates, one of many crimes, past and present, that can still instill fear and anger. It brought UW student Davon White and community member Calvin Lyons into conversation.

The family involved in the crime is letting the building fall apart, but the memory of that awful crime taints the region. We traveled on to nearby Sumner where the Till murderers were acquitted by all an white jury. The courthouse has been renovated, according to the Emmet Till Commission, to serve as an interpretive site marking the crime and efforts at reconciliation. We also visited the small town of Glendora, where the Mayor has built a museum to the crime, The Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center. He calls his tour "The Till Trail of Terror." The small museum recreates the era and the crime.

But the truth has to be acknowledged before any reconciliation can take place and according to Patrick Weems who directs the center and Glendora Mayor Johnny B.Thomas, many people in the region do not want to deal with truth of their past.

The murderers were never brought to justice. They both died of cancer. In 2004 the Justice Department reopened the case. It was acting on information that people still living were implicated. In 2007, a grand jury declined to seek any indictments.

We went to Money, Mississippi to track the legacy of the murder of Emmett Till. The murder was more than 60 years ago, but it isn't forgotten. The pain seems to linger like a heavy shadow over parts of the Mississippi Delta. Community member Ron Posthuma and Bellevue College Student Samri Tasew were dealing with that weight.

We are just off the Bus, in Greenwood, Mississippi, standing in the park where in 1966 Stokely Carmicheal (Kwame Ture) gave the speech that brought the concept of black power into public consciousness. What did it mean? Why did it frighten so many whites while worrying some black activists and empowering others? More importantly, what is the connection between black power and black lives matter?

Anthony Ray Hinton was freed after spending 30 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery Alabama, helped secure Hinton's release. He has come out without bitterness, without anger.

Community member and Pilgrimage musician Mark Pearson reflects with community member Jeanine Blue Lupton about HInton's conscious rejection of hatred for the people who deliberately imprisoned him. The Equal Justice Initiative was formed to change the American prison system. Hinton is one of more than 156 people exonerated or released from death row in the U.S. since 1973.

Jeanine was struck by a different moment from our trip. White privilege is a term many white people don't quite get. But during a discussion of whether our diverse group should go to a Trump rally, that concept became clear to many on the bus.

Community member Rita Kelly has been inspired by the courage of the youth who drove the civil rights movement 60 years ago. She sees it in youth today. Utah State University Professor and Pilgrimage leader Jason Gilmore can see courage rise in spite of pain, but the pain is still present and very real.

We traveled to the highest peaks and lowest valleys in one day. On the the bus to Birmingham, we talked to each other about the ride so far. Community members Sly Cann and Susan Schulkin talked about the challenge of opening up to strangers on a cramped bus and wondered how other folks might respond to such an exhilarating but exhausting day.

The struggles for civil rights in America didn't happen by accident. The actions that led to the end of Jim Crow were planned and executed by people trained in direct action.

54 people are on a bus traveling across the American South. First Stop, Nashville, home of American Baptist College and Fisk University, two Historically Black Colleges where civil rights eraprotests and actions of the late 1950's and 1960's were planned and co-ordinated by students.

Community member Marissa Vichayapai, Bellevue College Student Chloe Copoloff, UW student and leader Simon Tran, Community member and Bellevue College High School teacher Luke Michener, Bellevue student Shreyas Raman and Community member Mike Halprin talk about their experiences as the pilgrimage begins.

Bob Zellner is a civil rights foot soldier. He marched with Dr. King, with Rosa Parks, with John Lewis.

Bob Zellner joined our group ostensibly to provide some historic perspective. He brought humor, clarity and inspiration.

On a cold day in Mississippi, the roads covered in sheet ice, we stayed off the bus. Instead, we gathered in a conference room of our hotel for a long, warm session of what we called Zellner University.

Over the years in the movement, Bob Zellner has been attacked, beaten into unconsciousness, had his life threatened, been arrested 18 times. But at 76, he is still marching and still singing. As he told us one night, as he made his way to the front of a church, rather than linger in the back, “that’s the thing about the SNCC guys, we always want to be up front, where the action is”

Bob Zellner was the first white field secretary of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. SNCC was one of the most important grass roots groups of the civil rights movement. SNCC registered voters, led the freedom rides and helped organize the 1963 March on Washington.

Zellner was born in the south and came from a long line of Methodist preachers and KKK members. During World War II, his father had an epiphany while helping the Jewish underground alongside black gospel singers in the Soviet Union. Returning home, he raised his family outside the Klan.

Bob Zellner pushed even further, exploring the civil rights philosophy during his college years as the movement was emerging in Alabama and across the south. He joined SNCC in 1961. Later, with his wife and fellow foot soldier Dorothy Zellner, he created GROW, an organization training rural whites and black in social justice organizing tactics.